Wind Runner by Ellie Crowe

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Synopsis

Wind Runner -- Young Indian runners who ran as fast as the wind, carried vital messages for hundreds of miles across deserts, plains, and over mountains. This time the message was WAR. The starving Pueblo Indians were rising in battle against the cruel Spanish soldiers occupying their land, New Mexico. And they were calling on other Indian tribes, some their sworn enemies, to join the fight. Running alone is Running Deer, a 14-year-old boy taking the place of his older brother, Star Fire. But can a young boy succeed in this dangerous mission? This story about Native American runners is based on true events. In 1680, Po’pay, a Pueblo Indian medicine man, organized the Pueblo Revolution against Spanish tyranny in New Mexico. The young runners were a major reason for the success of this fight for freedom. Today, the nineteen Pueblo Nations, as a direct result of the strength and perseverance of their forefathers and their adherence to their native culture and traditions, still have their remaining homelands, their language, religion, and traditional form of government. In 2005, a seven-foot marble statue depicting Po’pay holding a knotted cord was placed in the Statuary Hall in Washington D.C. Sculpted by Jemez Pueblo sculptor Cliff Fragua this is the final statue to be installed in the collection and the only one sculpted by a Native American.